Out of all the books in this series, this one felt the most like fanfiction. Having Mulan work in finance (such a male-dominated industry) made sense to her story, and I thought her "disguise" here was a clever way to adapt it to a modern setting. I wasn't all that invested in Shang's ranch/distillery for a few reasons. One, it just felt too random to me; and two, he felt very boring as a character. The insta-love wasn't really my cup of tea here, especially because by the end of the book, it didn't feel like they really knew anything about each other. Shang's entire family was just a pile of copy/paste caricatures. And other than his mom and himself, the only others who stood out in any way were James and Uncle Hong. I really liked Mushu here. She felt like such a good balance to Mulan, and her energy was great in every scene she had.

This was a cute contemporary retelling of Beauty and the Beast, but it honestly was a bit of a slog to get through. It's hard to write a book that almost completely takes place in one place, and I feel like this one failed to stand out. Izzy and Beau do the exact same things every day, which is kind of to be expected when you spend all your time at home, but the reader also has to witness them do these things every time. There were also a lot of repetitive rhetorical questions asked in the narration that kind of got on my nerves. I did really enjoy how the Beauty and the Beast story was adapted to a modern setting without having a billion red flags appear around the Beast character. He was written very well, in my opinion.

Although this is a retelling of Cinderella, I would consider it a Cinderella Story only in the looses terms, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Having this story be retold through a reality dating show was so unique, and I'd be lying if I said it didn’t tempt me at least a little bit to watch one. We got to know Cindy pretty well, but I feel like even at the end of the book, we barely know anything about Henry. That, and the fact that he could never commit to one person or thing (a consequence of being the star of a dating show) made it really hard to root for him. On the other hand, I found Cindy's relationships with her step-family to be so refreshing. How often is it that we get a Cinderella Story where they actually all love each other?